Happy New Year everybody!
Last night after some good surfing and channel9 (http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=365911) video watching I went to close my laptop. Now anyone that knows me knows that I handle my laptop very gingerly and I did last night too. You see, my laptop (a Sony VAIO Vaio VGN-A190... yes, I know, mid 2004, how quaint) already has a hull breach or two. The display bezel is cracked in a couple of places and the display cover is cracked at the hinges and in the middle of the top and bottom edges, but these are cosmetic problems. Last night the right side display hinge snapped, which could have been really bad since that's the side that carries the display cable. [Update 2008-01-14: Only the power for the display runs on the right, the signal is on the left side hinge.]
The laptop buying advice: When buying a laptop, check the manufacturer's website for a way to order parts. They should have a good assortment of parts available for the model you are buying, but, more importantly, in-stock parts for a similar class from 3-4 years ago. Sony has DAPC (http://sony.com/dapc) which is pretty good. I quickly found the part and ordered it.
What I would like to see in the future is service manuals or at least a disasesmbly diagram available online.
This is the second time I've used Sony's DAPC. My wife also has a Sony Vaio VGN-A190 and I've replaced her keyboard and the power plug on it. For anyone who stumbles on this post trying to replace the keyboard or add RAM, the trick is to take out the two screws from underneath that have the dotted arrows on them and then gently pry up the bottom edge on the left and right side of the keyboard. Be careful not to rip the ribbon cable.
Some more advice on laptops:
Invest in the screen and processor but be cheap on the memory and hard drive - you can upgrade those later when you need to. Both our laptops are now maxed out for memory at 2GB. I suppose the more general rule is invest in the stuff you can't change later like the size for example. You can't buy a bigger or smaller screen really.
The A190s came with docking stations that have a tuner card and all that jazz. My advice is to skip that stuff. Docks are not really that useful, at least for me.
I figure I've got another year of life left in those laptops before I retire them and get another pair of laptops. I'm tempted to get a bigger drive for mine, but I think I'll just limp along with my stock 80GB. Hitachi just announced a 500GB 2.5" drive (http://www.hitachigst.com/portal/site/en/menuitem.045215966480a7127d807c90eac4f0a0/) which would be great except it's SATA only. John C. Dvorak called it (http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?p=15418) and I agree, this is another nail in the coffin for desktop machines.